Kwesi Pratt: Mills Address to the United Nations General Assembly was unimpressive
Kwesi Pratt Junior, Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper has faulted President Mills’ Address to the United Nations General Assembly as unimpressive because it lacked global context.
The president’s address, he said, was more fitting for a forum such as parliament and “not for a UN General Assembly.”
Pratt, a discussant on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme, pointed out on Saturday that “The United Nations is a world platform where you go and mobilize the world,… on issues and so on.
“What are we saying at the United Nations – We have eliminated schools under trees, we are distributing free exercise books, we are distributing free school uniforms and so on. What has it got to do with the United Nations? So to be honest with you, even though the issues the president raised are critical to the development of Ghana, they are issues not worth the attention they received at the UN General Assembly.”
Pratt said on his way to the programme, the radio station was playing some speeches of Ghana’s First President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and it made such a difference.
“Something is wrong with the speech writers of the President, something is wrong with our foreign ministry, and something is wrong with developing a global perspective and I think we should say it as it is. I am not impressed with this speech, at all.”
Kwesi Pratt, who continued that he felt uncomfortable with President Mills’ speech to the Assembly, also pointed out that compared to the speeches of people like Bolivian President Evo Morales, they received greater attention because they discussed the problems of the world.
“Now you compare the speech that our President gave, to speeches delivered by people like Evo Morales and see the world attention, see how they grabbed world attention and so on. Because they are discussing the world, they are discussing the problems of the world and how they see the world, we didn’t. We went there we were talking about free textbooks, free exercise books, free school uniforms, schools under trees and so on, I was not impressed at all.”
Kwesi Pratt agreed with President Mills that the organisation of free and fair elections in Ghana is important because if we fail, we risk pushing the nation to the brink of catastrophe, and it is therefore “absolutely important. But why the UN?”
While he also agreed that the supply of free school uniforms is a major social intervention, he did not agree that the forum was appropriate when the world is today “confronted with the bellicosity of imperialism,” when the United Nations has become something in the back pocket of the United States of America and when the US is killing hundreds of thousands of people across the globe on the basis of disclosures found in Wikileaks.
“What is the stand of Ghana? Do we mean that we have no stand? Are we afraid of the United States of America? Are we afraid of the imperialist powers? What is wrong with us?”
“Look at the bellicosity of imperialism, look at the ravaging, ravaging recklessness of imperialism and so on, and we go and talk about free school uniforms. It’s incredible. I must say with all honesty that I was not impressed with this speech. One of the key issues being decided in the United Nations, is whether or not the Palestinians are entitled or should be given a seat in the UN, this is a crucial issue and it’s an issue of national liberation. Why? You declare Founder’s Day in Ghana, what is Founder’s Day? What makes Founder’s Day so relevant and so on if not our commitment to national liberation, our commitment to the struggle against colonialism?…”
Source Myjoyonline Ghana
Category: News
